Draconian Engineers
|upkeep_cost = |num_figures = |moves = |melee = |defense = |resist = |hits = |abilities = Construction Wall Crusher Fire Breath 1 }} Draconian Engineers are a type of Normal Unit. :Not applicable in version 1.31. :Only in earlier versions or after modding. In earlier versions (or after modding) this unit may be created from a Draconian town, for the Construction Cost of . The town must already contain a Builders' Hall for this to be possible. The primary purpose of Draconian Engineers is to build Roads across your empire. This is done by sending the Engineers to a tile where you want a road constructed, and giving them the order to "Build". The process takes several turns, and is sped up when several Engineers go to work on the same tile. On the other hand, Draconian Engineers make very poor combat units, with only a weak Melee Attack and almost no Defense. They can slightly make up for this with an innate Fire Breath ability, but are still vulnerable. Like all Engineers they may however assist during siege combat, by using their Wall Crusher ability to bring down enemy City Walls. Draconian Engineers possess one very important advantage over other Engineers: their ability to Fly. This allows them to construct Roads at a much more efficient pace. Draconian Engineers require an Upkeep Cost of and to maintain. Failure to pay these costs will result in the unit being disbanded automatically. Unit Properties Physical Description Draconian Engineers are a group of dragon-kin, humanoids descended from dragons. They are covered in thick green scales from head to toe, they have long thin tails, reptilian heads, and two great dragon wings that enable them to fly. Draconian Engineers carry strangely-shaped tools (resembling gigantic wrenches for lack of a better word) which assist them in construction work - but can also be used for hand-to-hand combat. Draconians are also quite resistant to magic, and their scales provide strong protection. Draconian Engineers are a , containing when fully healed. Attack Properties Draconian Engineers initially possess a rather weak Melee Attack, but like other Draconians they can also utilize a Fire Breath attack of similar strength. Both attacks get a little stronger with Experience. Each Engineer makes a Melee Attack with a strength of . This gives each Engineer an average damage output of about . This is before allowing the opponent to make Defense rolls to deflect this damage. Therefore the Draconian Engineers are highly unlikely to cause any damage to decently-armored opponents, and will struggle to damage even the weakest units. On the other hand, when the unit makes a voluntary Melee Attack against an enemy unit, it first executes a Fire Breath attack, with a strength of per Engineer. Again, this will cause about on average per Engineer - certainly not a lot, but any enemy that actually gets killed by this attack cannot deliver any Melee Damage back at the Engineers. Both attacks get considerably better with Experience, and can potentially make the Draconian Engineers dangerous in combat - though they still cannot hold a candle to other Draconian units. Like other Engineers, Draconian Engineers possess the Wall Crusher ability, which they can use during a siege of a walled enemy town. They can fly up to a wall section and attack it directly, having a 50% chance of simply knocking a hole in the wall. This allows other, stronger Walking units to enter the enemy town and attack the defenders inside. Of course, Draconian armies rarely if ever contain any Walking units... Defense Properties The Draconian Engineers possess a Defense score of - an above-average score, though not too impressive. They can deflect about from any damage source, on average. This will rarely block anything but the weakest enemy attacks. As with most Normal Units, each Draconian Engineer possesses only . In other words, each point of inflicted on this unit will kill off one of its . Despite the relatively-high Defense value for an Engineers unit, the Draconian Engineers should avoid combat if possible. Though they can do some damage, they are too expensive and too useful in non-combat roles to be simply thrown away. Still, in an emergency, a unit of Draconian Engineers can stand up to enemy low-tier Normal Units with some degree of success. For purposes of defending against Curses and other combat maledictions, the Draconian Engineers have an above-average Resistance score of . This can protect them from some ill effects, but will probably fail about as often as it succeeds. With Experience however, Draconian Engineers can become surprisingly resistant to a large variety of ill effects. Other Properties Like all other Draconian units, Draconian Engineers have the innate ability to Fly. They also move at a rather good speed of . Both abilities are essential to the proper use of all Draconian units. For the Draconian Engineers in particular, fast movement is an extremely valuable trait. It allows this unit (or a stack of them) to efficiently construct roads across your empire with little delay. See below for more details on this. It may also come in handy during combat, either for avoiding enemy units more easily or (in emergencies) facilitating flank attacks and utilizing the Fire Breath ability properly. Furthermore, the Draconian Engineers' Flying ability gives them an automatic Sight Range bonus, enabling them to see two tiles away on the overland map (including diagonally). Road Construction : The Engineers are not designed for combat. Their primary purpose is construction of infrastructure - i.e. Roads. Draconian Engineers can work on the overland map to create links between Towns, allowing both faster travel by your units and increased income from trade. This is an extremely important part of the empire-building process, so acquiring Engineers from any race is vital for almost all empires. To construct a Road, the Engineers unit must first move into the tile where you wish the road to begin. Then, issue the order to "Build", in the unit's command menu. You may click on any tile on the overland map to plot a route along which to build the road, or simply confirm construction immediately to have the Engineers construct a road where they're standing. The panel on the right side of the screen displays the number of turns it'll take to finish building the road you've plotted. Note that it only takes into account the number of turns taken up by building. It does not take into account the turns spent on moving between tiles. On the other hand, Draconian Engineers in particular are very fast-moving, and will likely be able to move and initiate Road construction during the same turn - meaning that the estimate displayed here will very often be an accurate one! The amount of time required to build a road in a tile depends on the Terrain in that tile, and is also influenced by some Terrain Specials. The average construction time for a single unit of Engineers is about 5-6 turns per tile, with construction on Grassland tiles being fastest (3 turns) and construction in Mountains, Swamps and Volcanoes being slowest (8 turns). The process can be sped up by ordering several units of Engineers to construct the road together. The fastest speed possible is 1 turn per tile (regardless of Terrain), and is achieved with only 5 Engineers working simultaneously. Additional Engineers contribute nothing to the effort. Roads are automatically connected whenever they are constructed in adjacent tiles (including diagonally). Once a road is built in a tile, any unit can move into this tile at a cost of only 0.5 Movement Points. Thus, units can travel faster across your empire. Note of course that enemy and neutral units can do so as well. If a Road stretches continuously all the way from one Town to another, both towns gain a small but significant bonus to their income (generated from trade between them). This is another strong incentive to construct a network of roads connecting all towns. Any Roads built in Myrror are automatically transformed into Enchanted Roads for no extra fee. Units may move into an Enchanted Road tile without wasting any Movement Points, and thus can travel vast distances along a well-established road system in a single turn. Sadly, Non-Corporeal units cannot do this - they travel at 0.5 Movement Points per tile regardless of anything. For more detailed information, please visit the article about Roads. Basic Strategy The primary job of the Draconian Engineers is to build Roads. Any empire that can recruit Engineers of any race will benefit from this, as Roads bestow both a better strategic capability and a respectable amount of income from trade. Any respectable empire that does not run on brute force alone will want to accomplish this as early as possible. The strategic benefit comes with the ability to quickly move troops between towns, as well as towards Nodes. Reinforcements and replacements can thus be ferried quickly from the production centers to any combat zone. A well-networked empire is hard to conquer, as it can put its armies wherever they are needed! The benefit will obviously improve the ability to field more armies, recruit more Heroes, and upgrade towns. As the towns grow, in particular, so will the income from trade between them! This exponential factor can put an empire financially ahead of its competitors, and that is a very strong advantage. For empires built on Myrror, the strategic benefit is even more important, since Enchanted Roads allow virtually unlimited movement. Units can instantly arrive from any town to any location that needs defenses, and roads can be built straight into enemy territory (with armies protecting the Engineers, of course) to allow armies to simply stream in, overwhelming the enemy. Draconian Engineers are basically non-combat units. Though they can be brought into a battle to assist (particularly during sieges), they are not designed to fight and will do best to avoid combat using their superior speed. Flying also allows them to avoid attacks from most enemy Walking units. Draconian Engineers are too expensive to waste, and so should not be constructed with battle in mind. In emergencies however, a healthy Draconian Engineers unit - especially an Experienced one, may be able to take on a weaker enemy unit. Remember that during a siege battle, Engineers can work to create holes in City Walls (if present). This works alright in lieu of Catapults or other Wall Crushers, though it puts the Engineers at risk. In particular, avoid attempting to destroy a wall section when there is an enemy unit right behind it. The Engineers will attack that unit, and thus be exposed to its Counter Attack! This will surely get them all killed! Instead, try to breach the wall at an unoccupied location. Be ready to have your other units stream in through that hole. Remember of course that since most Draconian units are capable of Flying over walls, this service may or may not be required at all. Ability Overview Construction * This unit can build Roads. * To use this ability, travel to the tile where the road is to begin, and select the "Build" command. You may select a desired route, or simply let the unit built a single road section at its current position. * Construction time varies from tile to tile. Each additional unit simultaneously performing Road construction in the same tile accelerates the process. * The maximum rate - 1 turns to build one road section, regardless of Terrain - is achieved with 5 units working simultaneously. There is no benefit to adding more units. Wall Crusher * This unit can make Melee Attacks and/or Ranged Attacks (as available) against City Walls. Each attack has a certain chance to destroy the targeted wall section for the remainder of the battle. * A Ranged Attack has a 25% chance of destroying the targeted wall section. A Melee Attack has a 50% chance of destroying the targeted wall section. * If an enemy unit is standing behind the wall when it is attacked, the Wall Crusher unit attacks that unit as well. Defense bonuses to the target unit depend on whether or not the wall is destroyed during this attack. * This ability can only destroy City Walls. Other, magical wall types are not affected. Fire Breath 1 * Whenever this unit makes a Melee Attack against an enemy target, it also delivers a Fire Damage Breath Attack with a strength of per . * As a Breath Attack, this damage is delivered before the enemy gets the chance to retaliate. Any in the target unit that are killed by the attack do not get to deliver any Melee Damage. * This Breath Attack does not occur when the unit is Counter Attacking against an enemy assailant. * This effect does nothing against targets possessing the Magic Immunity or Fire Immunity abilities. Experience Table The following table illustrates how Draconian Engineers improve as they gain Experience. Any properties that are not listed here do not improve with Experience in any way. * To achieve this level, either the Warlord Retort or the Crusade spell must be in play. ** To achieve this level, both the Warlord Retort and the Crusade spell must be in play simultaneously. Average Damage Output The table below details the average amount of damage that each in a Draconian Engineers unit will deliver with each type of attack, based on . It can be used in comparison to the target's Defense rating to figure out the chance of hurting that target. Acquisition Draconian Engineers cannot be produced in the current version of Masters of Magic, though they still exist in game files, with building requirements of an Animists' Guild and a Mechanicians' Guild. As Draconians cannot build a Mechanicians' Guild, this means the unit is unavailable. They may not appear as mercenaries either. Category:Units Category:Normal Units Category:Draconians Category:Engineers